Utility companies have developed meters equipped with modems in order to transmit readings of consumed resources, e.g., gas, water, or electricity, via telephone lines. The utility companies have a substantial investment in this technology. However, a disadvantage of this technology is the lack of availability of telephone lines in many areas and high installation cost to link the modem equipped meter to a data acquisition system of utility companies.
From the above, it can be appreciated that it would be desirable to have a system and method for facilitating digital communication between the modem equipped meter and the utility data acquisition system without the use of telephone lines to transmit readings to the data acquisition system.